Vera Cruz and its
castle are in view, twelve miles off. This morning Commodore Connor took the general and
his officers on a steamer and reconnoitered.

When one and one
half miles from the castle, the enemy opened some 68 pounders and mortars upon the
precious little craft. Shells flew about, doing no harm save depriving some of the raw
ones of their appetites. Had one struck the steamer she undoubtedly would have been
disabled.

The craft mentioned was the small steamer Petrita,
and she was more precious than the observer quoted above knew. In addition to Connor, the
passengers were General Winfield Scott and several officers from his staff, including
Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Johnston, Captain Robert Lee, and Lieutenants Pierre Beauregard
and George Meade.

In early March of
1847, an American fleet with several thousand soldiers, sailors, and marines was steaming
off the coast of Vera Cruz. A year into the Mexican War, US forces had accumulated a
series of victories, but the Mexican government refused surrender or settlement. An
invasion of central Mexico, and taking of its capital, were deemed necessary, and the
route chosen was the same Cortez had used 300 years earlier. After months of planning, the
invasion force had arrived.

Vera Cruz was
considered by many the best-defended city in North America, with its thick walls and
imposing offshore castle San Juan de Ulua, and US forces had never conducted a large-scale
amphibious attack. General Scott, commander of the operation, had come to rely on many
West Point-educated officers (most of whom had never experienced combat), and called them
his little cabinet. They accompanied him and Connor on the Petrita to
examine the citys defenses and choose invasion landing sites.

A Petrita
passenger saw the Mexican gunners on the fortress sponging their cannon and remarked,
We will have shot presently. Shells first landed short of the vessel, then
well beyond it, and some exploded overhead. Connor teased the Mexicans for several minutes
with his lack of action, finally ordering the vessel to a safer position when it seemed
their accuracy was improving. George Meade, writing home after the incident, remarked
one shell, hitting the vessel . . . might have been the means of breaking up the
whole expedition.

One can speculate
endlessly on the changes to the Civil War, and America, if not for the Mexican
gunners poor aim, or bad luck.